TVSquad

Sure Lost is a bona fide hit, but who remembers Invasion? In fact, none of the sci fi series premiering that year (Surface and Threshold) made it beyond a single season. And yet, as Brad reported, ABC is developing The Return, a series focusing on how the world handles an "alien landing." You know, like the classic V mini-series of the '80s. In fact, the last episode of V: The Series was called "The Return." Maybe this is a secret code name for the long teased V return!

But that announcement got me thinking about all those sci fi and fantasy shows that never finish on television. It's a phenomenon us long-time science fiction/fantasy fans have learned to live with. We jump on any new genre show on television hoping against hope that the ratings will be strong enough that we'll get the whole story. Alas, we know that more often than not the plug will be pulled mid-stream and we'll be left wanting. And for every Joss Whedon who continues Buffy and Angel in comics, there are tons more who don't.

During our Buffy the Vampire Slayer Retro Squad week, I put out a call for an episode of Buffy a newbie could watch to get a feel for the show. And you guys came through in a big way. Most insisted it was a show that needed to be watched from the beginning, but at the same time warned that there was some cheese-factor in those early episodes. Your votes pushed me to "Hush," which I found to be incredibly enjoyable and a perfect introduction to the cleverness and tone of the show. Even better, it made me that much more eager to go back and watch the entire run of the show.

In the comments to that piece Doug Nelson asked if someone could do something similar for Babylon 5. That got me thinking about other serialized shows of this nature like The X-Files, The West Wing and to an extent Doctor Who and Quantum Leap. We're a community of TV-lovers here, so we should help each other out. Thus, the TVS Starter Kits. And for Doug Nelson, it starts with Babylon 5.

I've never interviewed Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski and don't know him personally, but he sure seems like one classy guy. He recently posted a note on his web site, giving readers his thoughts on more Babylon 5 DVDs.

In short, he's against it. He feels that offerings like the TV movie, Babylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers, and the straight-to-DVD story, Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, take away from the strength of the original TV series.

He writes that The Lost Tales was commissioned at a $2 million budget, and they did the best they could with it. Apparently, the studio wasn't sure there was an audience for Babylon 5. Silly studio.

Yes. It's starting to look like Summer 2007 when we feed you announcements about additions to the Heroes cast at least twice a week. Earlier this week, I told you that Friday Night Lights' Brea Grant was joining the superheroes series as a character with the power of superspeed. Today, I'm letting you know that 57-year-old actor Bruce Boxleitner (he'll turn 58 on May 12), was added to the cast of Heroes.

It's that festive time of year when children put tinsel on the television antennas and hang mistletoe over their favorite DVDs. Where celebrities check into rehab to spend the holidays with all their celebrity friends. And where the rest of America is invited to corporate non-specific, non-religious, non-alcoholic generic winter holiday luncheons where they can mingle with their co-workers and say things like "Remember when this company used to have real Christmas parties?"

But while political correctness may have ruined most holiday functions, nothing can ruin Festivus! That magical season in which TV Squadders hope and pray for televisions dreams come true. And I know just what I want...

(S05E13) Ya know, no matter what part political affiliation you claim, I think we can all agree that Bill Clinton lends himself well to comedy. There's just enough hillbilly in his character to make him easy to laugh at. Family Guy certainly isn't the first show to take a run at Clinton, and they've now featured the former president four or five times, but there's plenty of room at that party.

That's getting ahead of the game though. Before we could get to the Peter and Bill hijinks, there was the loosely relevant opening at the Quahog Marine Center. While it was a long way to go to get to the main plot, there were a lot of funny bits in that opening. Herbert at the fondle tank, Stewie's stripper line, and Seamus saving Peter from the octopus were all good bits. I especially liked the Wacky Wall Walker finish to that.

Warner Home Video officially announced the start of production on the new straight to DVD Babylon 5 movie. News of the project has been floating around the internet for some time, but now some of the details are becoming a little clearer. Originally it was reported to include three new stories written by B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski. In this post at jmsnews he mentions three half hour stories plus bonus material for the new DVD.

Now that production has begun, it appears that one of the three stories will be cut. Cinema Blend has a rundown of Straczynski's latest postings on the subject. Apparently the Garibaldi story was the most complicated one to make, so it has been postponed for a possible later release. I assume that depends on how well Lost Tales sells. It's also worth noting that JMS mentions Battlestar Galactica when talking about how he wants to re-imagine the look of B5 using the latest technology.

I'll be interested to see how this all turns out. Not just for the new Babylon 5 stories, but also because the idea of a straight to DVD/download series is one that has been kicked around for some time now. A successful launch for Lost Tales could be another step in that direction.